Quick. Hark ye; mafter Slender would speak a word with you. Anne. I come to him. This is my father's choice. [Afide Quick. And how does good mafter Fenton? Pray you, a word with you. Shal. She's coming; to her, coz. O boy, thou hadít a father! Slen. I had a father, mistress Anne ;-my uncle can tell you good jefts of him :-Pray you, uncle, tell mistress Anne the jeft, how my father stole two geese out of a pen, good uncle. Shal. Miftrefs Anne, my coufin loves you. Slen. Ay, that I do; as well as I love any woman in Glocefterfhire. Shal. He will maintain you like a gentlewoman. Slen. Ay, that I will, come cut and long-tail,4 under the degree of a 'fquire. Shal. 4 i. e. come poor, or rich, to offer himself as my rival. The following is faid to be the origin of the phrafe. According to the foreft laws, the dog of a man, who had no right to the privilege of chace, was obliged to cut, or law his dog among other modes of difabling him, by depriving him of his tail. A dog fo cut was called a cut, or curt-tail, and by contraction cur. Cut and long-tail therefore fignified the dog of a clown, and the dog of a gentleman. STEEVENS. I can fee no meaning in this phrafe. Slender promifes to make his mistress a gentle woman, and probably means to fay, he will deck her in a gown of the court-cut, and with a long train or tail. SIR J. HAWKINS. This phrafe is often found in old plays, and feldom, if ever, with any variation. The change therefore propofed by Sir John Hawkins cannot be received, without great violence to the text. Whenever the words occur, they always bear the fame meaning, and that meaning is obvious enough without any explanation. The origin of the phrafe may however admit of fome difpute, and it is by no means certain that the account of it, here adopted by Mr. Steevens from Dr. Johnfon, is well-founded. That there ever exifted fuch a mode of difqualifying dogs by the laws of the foreft, as is here afferted, cannot be acknowledged without evidence, and no authority is quoted to prove that fuch a cuftom at any time prevailed. The writers on this fubject are totally filent, as far as they have come to my knowledge. Manwood, who wrote on the Foreft Laws before they were entirely difufed, mentions expeditation or cutting off three claws of the fore-foot, as the only manner of lawing dogs; and with his account, Shal. He will make you a hundred and fifty pounds jointure. Anne. Good mafter Shallow, let him woo for himself. Shal. Marry, I thank you for it; thank you for that good comfort. She calls you, coz: Ill leave you. Anne. Now, master Slender. Slen. Now, good miftrefs Anne. Anne. What is your will? Slen. My will? od's heartlings, that's a pretty jeft, indeed! I ne'er made my will yet, I thank heaven; I am not such a fickly creature, I give heaven praife. Anne. I mean, mafter Slender, what would you with me? Slen. Truly, for mine own part, I would little or nothing with you: Your father, and my uncle, have made motions: if it be my luck, fo; if not, happy man be his dole! 5 They can tell you how things go, better than I can : You may alk your father; here he comes. Enter PAGE, and Mistress PAGE. Page. Now, mafter Slender :-Love him, daughter Anne. M 4 Why, Were I to offer a con account, the Charter of the Foreft feems to agree. jecture, I thould fuppofe that the phrafe originally referred to horfes, which might be denominated cut and long tail, as they were curtailed of this part of their bodies, or allowed to enjoy its full growth; and this might be practifed according to the difference of their value, or the ufes to which they were put. In this view, cut and long tail would include the whole fpecies of horfes good and bad. In fupport of this opinion it may be added, that formerly a cut was a word of reproach in vulgar collɔqpial abufe, and I believe is never to be found applied to horfes, except to those of the worst kind. After all, if any authority can be produced to countenance Dr. Johnfon's explanation, I fhall be very ready to retract every thing that is here said. REED. The last converfation I had the honour to enjoy with Sir William Blackftone, was on this fubject; and by a feries of accurate references to the whole collection of ancient Forest Laws, he convinced me of our repeated error, expeditation and genufciffion, being the only established and technical modes ever used for disabling the canine fpecies. Part of the tails of fpaniels indeed are generally cut off (ornamenti gratia) while they are puppies, fo that (admitting a loofe defcription) every kind of dog is comprehended in the phrafe of cut and long-tail, and every rank of people in the fame expreffion, if metaphorically used. STREVENS. 5 A proverbial expreffion. STEEVENS. Why, how now! what does mafter Fenton here? Mrs. Page. Good mafter Fenton, come not to my child, Fent. Sir, will you hear me ? Page. [Exeunt PAGE, SHALLOW, and SLENDER. Quick. Speak to miftrefs Page. Fent. Good miftrefs Page, for that I love your daughter In fuch a righteous fashion as I do, Perforce, againft all checks, rebukes, and manners, I must advance the colours of my love, And not retire: Let me have your good will. Anne. Good mother, do not marry me to 'yon fool. Mrs. Page. I mean it not; I feek you a better husband. Quick. That's my master, mafter doctor. Anne. Alas, I had rather be fet quick i' the earth, And bowl'd to death with turnips. Mrs. Page. Come, trouble not yourfelf: Good mafter Fenton, I will not be your friend, nor enemy: My daughter will I queftion how she loves you, And as I find her, fo am I affected; 'Till then, farewell, fir :-She muft needs go in ; Her father will be angry. [Exeunt Mrs. PAGE and ANNE. Fent. Farewell, gentle miftrefs; farewell, Nan. Quick. This is my doing now ;-Nay, faid I, will you caft away your child on a fool, and a phyfician?7 Look on mafter Fenton :-this is my doing. Fent. This is a common proverb in the fouthern counties. COLLINS. 7 I should read-fool or a phyfician, meaning Slender and Caius. JOHNSON. Sir Thomas Hanmer reads according to Dr. Johnfon's conjecture. This may be right.- Or my Dame Quickly may allude to the proverb, a man of forty is either a fool or a phyfician; but the aflerts her mafter to be both. FARMER. Mr. Dennis, " Fent. I thank thee; and I pray thee, once to-night 8 Give my sweet Nan this ring: There's for thy pains. [Exit. Quick. Now heaven fend thee good fortune! A kind heart he hath a woman would run through fire and water for fuch a kind heart. But yet, I would my master had mistress Anne; or I would mafter Slender had her; or, in footh, I would mafter Fenton had her: I will do what I can for them all three; for fo I have promised, and I'll be as good as my word; but fpeciously 9 for mafter Fenton. Well, I must of another errand to fir John Falstaff from my two mistresses; What a beaft am I to flack it? 2 A Room in the Garter Inn. Enter FALSTAFF and BARDOLPH. Fal. Bardolph, I fay, Bard. Here, fir. [Exit. Fal. Go fetch me a quart of fack; put a toaft in't. [Exit BARD.] Have I lived to be carried in a basket, like a barrow of butcher's offal; and to be thrown into the Thames? Well; if I be ferved fuch another trick, I'll have my brains ta'en out, and butter'd, and give them to a dog for a new year's gift. The rogues flighted me into the river with as little remorfe as they would have drown'd a bitch's blind puppies, M 5 Mr. Dennis, of irafcible memory, who altered this play, and brought it on the ftage, in the year 1702, under the title of The Comical Gallant, (when, thanks to the alterer, it was fairly damn'd,) has introduced the proverb at which Mrs. Quickly's allufion appears to be pointed. STEEVENS. I believe the old copy is right, and that Mrs. Quickly means to infinuate that he had addreffed at the fame time both Mr. and Mrs. Page on the fubject of their daughter's marriage, one of whom favoured Slender, and the other Caius: on a fool or a phyfician," would be more accurate, but and is fufficiently fuitable to dame Quickly, referendo fingula fingulis. Thus: "You two are going to throw away your daughter on a fool and a phyfician; you, fir, on the former, and you, madam, on the latter." MALONE. 8 i. e. fometime to-night. STEEVENS. puppies, fifteen i' the litter and you may know by my fize, that I have a kind of alacrity in finking; if the bottom were as deep as hell, I should down. I had been drown'd, but that the fhore was shelvy and shallow; a death that I abhor; for the water fwells a man; and what a thing fhould I have been, when I had been fwell'd! I fhould have been a mountain of mummy. Re-enter BARDOLPH, with the wine. Bard. Here's Miftrefs Quickly, fir, to fpeak with you. Fal. Come, let me pour in fome fack to the Thames water; for my belly's as cold, as if I had fwallow'd fnow-balls for pills to cool the reins. Call her in. Bard. Come in, woman. Enter Mrs. QUICKLY. Quick. By your leave; I cry you mercy: Give your worfhip good-morrow. Fal. Take away thefe chalices: Go brew me a pottle of fack finely. Bar. With eggs, fir? Fal. Simple of itfelf; I'H no pullet-fperm in my brewage. [Exit BARDOLPH.]-How now? Quick. Marry, fir, I come to your worship from mistress Ford. Fal. Miftrefs Ford! I have had ford enough: I was thrown into the ford; I have my belly full of ford. Quick. Alas the day! good heart, that was not her fault: fhe does fo take on with her men; they miftook their erec tion. Fal. So did I mine, to build upon a foolish woman's promife. Quick. Well, he laments, fir, for it, that it would yearn your heart to fee it. Her husband goes this morning a birding; fhe defires once more to come to her between eight you and 3 The old copy reads- -"a blind bitch's puppies." STEEVENS. I have ventured to tranfpofe the adjective here, against the authority of the printed copies. I know, in horfes, a colt from a blind ftallion lofes much of the value it might otherwife have; but are puppies ever drown'd the fooner, for coming from a blind bitch? The author certainly wrote, as #bey would have drown'd a bit co3 ́s blind puppies. THSOBALY, |